Regulatory and market intelligence for the e-cigarette sector
This page covers all of our European regulatory news briefings. These include all stories relating to individual European countries, as well as more general updates and briefings from the continent as a whole. These range from changes and developments in legislation and restrictions to new proposals and policy developments.
A controversy over the way the six-month delay between notification and placing an e-cigarette product on the market is enforced in Germany has been brought into the political arena by a parliamentary question
The European Union’s commissioner for health and food safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, has expressed concern about the use of electronic cigarettes and new tobacco products by young people
The Polish Ministry of Finance has extended its 0% excise tax on e-liquids and novel tobacco products until the end of June 2020
Estonian health officials have justified to ECigIntelligence their interpretation of the country’s law as imposing exactly the same rules on vaping products both with and without nicotine
The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued new guidance to companies on how to comply with national notification regulations
Sweden is to ban vaping on public transport, at playgrounds, sports arenas and other outdoor spaces under a new law equating the use of e-cigarettes with smoking combustible tobacco
The Swedish Chemicals Agency has changed its interpretation regarding e-liquids with nicotine concentration over 17 mg/ml.
As ECigIntelligence reported a few months ago, authorities required both producers and consumers to obtain a permit for the sale and use of e-liquid containing over 17 mg of nicotine per ml, which was a de facto ban.
The European Commission Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks has identified e-cigs as one of the main emerging health-related issues in Europe
Austria has recently tightened up its regulatory stance with the Non Smoking Act (Nichtraucherschutzgesetz) restricting the purchasing age for e-cigs and similar tobacco products to 18 years old, from 1st January 2019. Previously, the minimum age for buying tobacco-related products was 16 years old.
The new age limit was voted into law in the federal parliament in April 2018, and now needs to be implemented by each state or land.
British smokers and vapers, as well as medical experts, are being asked to help define priorities for scientific research on e-cigarettes.
The E-cigarettes Priority Setting Partnership project is beginning its open consultation with an online survey consisting of just one query: “What question(s) about electronic cigarettes would you like to see answered by research?”
E-cigarettes should be used in France to help smokers quit the habit, says an official consultative assembly that reports to the prime minister, National Assembly and Senate
Regulation, regulation, regulation was the theme of 2018. ECigIntelligence brings you its round-up of the developments that marked the old year and may shape the direction of those to come in the world of vaping and HnB
Finland could become the first country in the world to insist on plain packaging for e-cigarettes if the recommendations of a working group appointed by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health are implemented
Italy has passed the much anticipated law reducing tax on e-liquids and halving duties on heated tobacco. The decree cuts the duty on nicotine-containing liquids from 50% to 10% of the tax on conventional cigarettes
The UK government will review the TPD in the light of the country’s coming departure from the EU, having accepted all the recommendations in the Science and Technology Committee’s report on e-cigs
Details of legal changes, proposals and notices in 19 countries and at EU level were among 73 stories published last month by ECigIntelligence to subscribers through our daily European Live Alerts
Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, is considering a number of legal amendments that could bring major changes to the regulation of vaping products, including taxation
The Dutch government is proposing to insist on plain packaging for e-cigarette products from 2022. That is one of the startling measures proposed in the long-awaited National Prevention Agreement
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has upheld the ban on the sale of snus which has applied since 1992 in the whole EU except Sweden, which was granted an exemption under the 2014 TPD
The Polish government is to delay imposing excise tax on e-liquids and novel tobacco products – due to commence on 1st January 2019 – by setting a 0% rate until the end of June 2020
The UK should relax restrictions on vaping further, according to a group of concerned members of parliament, who say people should be told second-hand vapour is no threat to health
The British government last week presented the 585-page draft withdrawal agreement which lays out how it intends the UK to leave the European Union. So what does it all mean for the e-cigarette industry
The body in charge of regulating advertising in the UK will now allow ads for e-cigarettes to promote the products’ health benefits. The ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) came into effect immediately
Attempts by Belgium to impose new strict regulations on heated-tobacco products may run into problems with the European Union
The future of vaping regulation in Europe is generating interest in Brussels, where various groups have been debating the right way ahead
Dutch health secretary Paul Blokhuis is to reveal this month a proposed new set of regulations on heated tobacco and e-cigarettes, part of the National Prevention Agreement on smoking, obesity and alcohol
Tight regulation doesn’t necessarily hamper product development, and stricter requirements could even help, according to the technical director of British tobacco harm reduction specialist Kind Consumer
Internet sales of heated-tobacco devices will shortly be banned in Belgium, where selling e-cigarettes online has been illegal since 2016
The number of people vaping in Germany is rising, with those aged between 16 and 29 particularly drawn to e-cigarettes, according to the federal government’s latest drug and addiction report
Fifty Swiss e-cigarette manufacturers and sellers have signed up to a code of conduct voluntarily banning sales of vaping products to under-18s and advertising aimed at minors
New exclusive report: E-cigarettes in China: market, regulation and outlook
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